Many many humans don’t really distinguish between terminal and instrumental values when making such decisions, and can’t really tell you WHY they desire such things for them or their children. I’d say that joining (or staying in, or moving up in) the elite class is a common desire that maps pretty easily to hunter/gatherer tribal status, and is very understandable as something one might desire as a default position.
For those who have explicit terminal goals, joining the elite can well be instrumental for many of them—it does ease a lot of activities, influence, and resource direction. But there are likely other instrumental paths to the same sort of influence and resource control, and agents will have to trade off where they think they can best focus.
Many many humans don’t really distinguish between terminal and instrumental values when making such decisions, and can’t really tell you WHY they desire such things for them or their children. I’d say that joining (or staying in, or moving up in) the elite class is a common desire that maps pretty easily to hunter/gatherer tribal status, and is very understandable as something one might desire as a default position.
For those who have explicit terminal goals, joining the elite can well be instrumental for many of them—it does ease a lot of activities, influence, and resource direction. But there are likely other instrumental paths to the same sort of influence and resource control, and agents will have to trade off where they think they can best focus.